Ad Analysis Lab: Classroom Activities Using This Week’s Top Campaigns (Lego to Skittles)

Turn This Week's Top Ads into a High-Impact Ad Analysis Lab

Hook: If your students struggle to connect advertising theory to real campaigns, and you need ready-to-run lesson plans that teach rhetorical analysis, brand positioning, and creative strategy, this lab turns the week’s biggest ads into classroom-ready case studies. Using recent campaigns from Lego to Skittles, these activities give learners hands-on practice with industry methods and 2026 trends.

Quick overview: what this lab delivers

• Modular lesson plans for three 50-minute classes and an extended capstone project
• Student assignments that map to learning objectives, rubrics, and assessment criteria
• Primary texts from late 2025 – early 2026 campaigns: Lego, Skittles, e.l.f. x Liquid Death, Cadbury, Heinz, KFC, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
• Alignment to skills educators need in 2026: ethical AI literacy, platform strategy post-cookie era, attention-first creative, and earned media stunts

Why use current ads as primary texts in 2026

Brands are shifting budgets and creative approaches faster than ever. In late 2025 and into 2026, marketers prioritized stunts, purpose-driven content, and AI-conscious narratives over pure Super Bowl splashes. These moves create teachable moments about why creative choices matter to positioning, metrics, and long-term brand equity.

Using fresh campaigns does three things for learners: it builds media literacy, shows how theory applies in real time, and trains students to read cultural context. The Lego campaign about kids and AI, and Skittles’ decision to skip the Super Bowl for a focused stunt, are perfect primary texts for these lessons.

Course fit and learning objectives

Use this lab in courses on advertising, brand strategy, marketing communications, media studies, or as a module inside a practicum for creative teams.

• LO1: Conduct rhetorical analysis of visual and verbal ad elements.
• LO2: Map creative executions to brand positioning and audience segments.
• LO3: Develop a media or earned media plan that aligns creative strategy with measurable outcomes.
• LO4: Critically evaluate ethical and cultural implications, including AI and privacy considerations.

Structure: three 50-minute lessons plus a capstone

Lesson 1: Rhetorical Deconstruction (50 minutes)

Primary texts: Lego “We Trust in Kids” spot and e.l.f. x Liquid Death goth musical clip

Materials: video clips, transcripts, still frames, projector, rhetorical analysis worksheet

1. Opening (5 min): Present the learning goal and show the Lego clip. Ask students to note one thing that surprised them.
2. Guided analysis (15 min): Walk through the three rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, logos. Model with Lego: ethos via Lego’s educational credibility, pathos via child-centered framing, logos via facts about school AI policy gaps.
3. Pair exercise (15 min): Students use the worksheet to annotate the e.l.f. x Liquid Death clip, marking instances of humor, genre pastiche, and audience segmentation cues.
4. Report back (10 min): Each pair gives 90-second findings using the PEEL format: Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link to brand strategy.
5. Exit ticket (5 min): One-line takeaway and one question about how rhetorical choices affect metrics.

Assessment: Short rubric scoring clarity of claims, evidence cited from clips, and linkage to brand purpose.

Lesson 2: Brand Positioning Workshop (50 minutes)

Primary texts: Skittles stunt with Elijah Wood and Cadbury’s homesick sister story

Materials: brand positioning canvas, audience persona templates, SWOT handout

1. Intro (5 min): Reframe learning goal: link creative to positioning and consumer perception.
2. Mini-lecture (10 min): Walk through a simple brand positioning canvas: target, category, point of difference, reason to believe.
3. Group activity (25 min): Small groups complete the canvas for Skittles and Cadbury. Prompt: how does skipping a high-reach event (Super Bowl) for a stunt alter the positioning trade-offs?
4. Share and critique (8 min): Groups swap canvases for a 2-minute peer critique and 2-minute revision.
5. Wrap (2 min): Instructor highlights how earned attention differs from paid reach and when each tactic serves the brand.

Assessment: Graded on accuracy of positioning elements, depth of audience insight, and strategic recommendation quality.

Lesson 3: Creative Strategy to Metrics (50 minutes)

Primary texts: Heinz portable ketchup solution, KFC “Make Tuesdays Finger Lickin’ Good”, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter x Gordon Ramsay

Materials: KPI mapping worksheet, sample media budgets, small whiteboards

1. Hook (5 min): Present a short case – Heinz solves a micro-friction for users. Ask: what business metric moves?
2. KPI mapping mini-lecture (10 min): Introduce metrics hierarchy: awareness, consideration, conversion, retention, brand equity proxies.
3. Hands-on mapping (25 min): Teams pick one ad and build a measurement plan. Include leading indicators and long-term metrics, plus an A/B test hypothesis for creative optimization.
4. Peer review (8 min): Swap plans and give two improvements each.
5. Close (2 min): Emphasize transparency in attribution and the value of qualitative measures.

Assessment: Plans scored for realism, testability, and alignment to creative goals.

Capstone: 2-Week Project – Campaign Clinic

Students become consultant teams. Each team chooses one campaign from the primary texts, performs a 360-degree analysis, and presents a 12-slide deck plus a 3-minute video pitch proposing the next six-week activation.

Deliverables

• 360 Analysis document: rhetorical critique, positioning canvas, competitive landscape, audience personas, and ethical implications.
• Activation plan: creative concept, media mix, KPI roadmap, 3-week content calendar, and a 6-week measurement plan.
• Pitch video: 3 minutes to persuade a brand CMO to approve the plan; include mockups and a simplified budget.

Evaluation Rubric

• Analysis depth 30%
• Strategic coherence 25%
• Creativity and feasibility 20%
• Measurement and testing rigor 15%
• Presentation quality 10%

Sample student assignment prompts

Assignment A: Rhetorical Annotation

Annotate the Lego spot with time-stamped notes for ethos, pathos, logos, visual metaphors, and any intertextual references. Conclude with a 300-word explanation of how Lego uses child agency as a persuasive frame.

Assignment B: Positioning Rewrite

Pick the Skittles stunt. Write a 150-word alternative brand positioning that would justify a Super Bowl buy instead of a stunt, and a 150-word rationale for why the brand might still prefer the stunt approach. Support your claims with two contemporary data points about attention and earned media trends in 2026.

Assignment C: A/B Test Plan

For the e.l.f. x Liquid Death goth musical, craft an A/B test comparing two social cutdowns. Define hypothesis, sample size estimate, primary metric, secondary metrics, and the decision rule for winner selection.

Connections to 2026 trends and the broader industry context

These lessons reflect trends that shaped late 2025 and early 2026 campaigns:

• AI literacy and ethics: Lego’s campaign illustrates how brands are entering policy debates. Teach students to evaluate a brand’s credibility to speak on technical or ethical topics.
• Attention arbitrage: Skittles skipping the Super Bowl demonstrates reallocating high-cost buys into targeted stunts that generate earned coverage.
• Creative-first measurement: Brands are pairing bold creative with rigorous A/B and incrementality tests to show short-term ROI and long-term brand lift.
• Platform fragmentation: As platforms evolve and privacy rules tighten, campaigns often prioritize organic stunts and influencer partnerships over pure programmatic reach.

Practical classroom tips and adaptations

• Remote-friendly: Use breakout rooms, collaborative Google slides, and a shared Miro board for the positioning canvas.
• Time-saving templates: Provide a one-page analytic worksheet and a slide deck template to reduce overhead for grading.
• Assessment transparency: Post rubrics at the assignment launch to align student expectations to industry standards.
• Accessibility: Supply transcripts and image descriptions for each primary text to meet inclusive teaching practices.

Examples of instructor language and prompts

Instructor prompt for critique: “Identify the brand promise in this ad. Which lines of evidence support that promise, and where are the gaps? What unintended readings might this spot produce in 2026 cultural context?”

Use this language to push students beyond surface-level observations and toward strategic critique.

Extensions and assessment variants

• Graduate level: Add a 2,000-word paper on ethical implications and regulatory risks, especially when brands enter public policy conversations like AI in schools.
• Executive workshop: Condense the lab into a 3-hour bootcamp for marketing teams to practice rapid campaign critiques and activation plans.
• Cross-disciplinary: Partner with a data analytics course to model incrementality and with a design course to produce storyboards and UX prototypes.

Tools, further reading, and curated lecture collections

Include these resources in a course playlist to build a multi-week module on contemporary ad analysis.

• Primary clips and transcripts from the week’s campaigns
• Short lectures on rhetorical theory, brand positioning, and KPI mapping
• Case studies and postmortems from 2025–2026 showing earned media performance
• Templates: Brand Positioning Canvas, KPI Mapping Worksheet, A/B Test Plan

Group lectures into a curated collection for a module titled: “Ad Analysis Lab: Contemporary Campaigns and Strategy – 2026 Edition” and tag by topic, course, and institution for easy reuse.

Actionable takeaways for instructors

1. Use this week’s ads as primary texts to keep lessons current and culturally relevant.
2. Blend rhetorical analysis with strategy and metrics to teach decisions, not just interpretation.
3. Create measurable assignments that require hypothesis-driven testing and ethical evaluation.
4. Leverage short, focused rubrics and templates to scale grading without losing insight.

Sample rubric excerpt

For the campaign clinic 360 analysis: score each criterion 1–5.

• Insight and research depth – cites primary evidence and contextual sources
• Strategic alignment – creative, audience, and metrics are consistent
• Feasibility – clear timeline and realistic budget assumptions
• Ethical and cultural awareness – discusses risks and mitigation
• Presentation – clarity, storytelling, and visual support

Final notes on credibility and teaching evidence

When using live campaigns, keep an evidence log. Save URLs, capture timestamps, and archive transcripts. Encourage students to cite sources and to separate observed facts from interpretation. This builds the kind of rigor hiring managers expect in 2026.

Call to action

Ready to run the lab next week? Download the full kit: fillable canvases, slide templates, rubrics, and a pre-curated lecture playlist that maps these lessons to a 10-week syllabus. Build your curated lecture collection, assign the capstone, and prepare students to critique and build campaigns that work in today’s attention-driven, AI-aware marketing landscape.

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